Final answer:
The statement is false. The law of conservation of mass and energy states that mass and energy cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical or physical reaction, although they may change forms.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that mass/energy is created or destroyed in a chemical or physical reaction is false. The law of conservation of mass states that in a chemical reaction, matter is neither created nor destroyed, which means that the total mass of the substances before the reaction (reactants) must be equal to the total mass of the substances after the reaction (products). Similarly, the law of conservation of energy dictates that in any physical or chemical process, energy is neither created nor destroyed, but it may change forms within a closed system. These laws are fundamental to both chemical and physical reactions and highlight the idea that the total quantity of matter and energy in a system is conserved.
For example, when charcoal burns in oxygen, the mass of charcoal plus oxygen used in the reaction must equal the mass of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and ash produced. This is a practical observation of the law of conservation of mass in action.
While these laws hold true for most chemical reactions, in nuclear reactions, the energy changes are much more significant, and the interconversion between mass and energy becomes noticeable, in accordance with Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2. But even here, the total combined amount of matter and energy remains constant.